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First-year Utah State football coach Bronco Mendenhall talks to his players during spring football practice at Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah. | Utah State Athletics
In its first year under new head coach Bronco Mendenhall, Utah State tried hard to keep things under wrap.
USU wasn’t Fort Knox, but Mendenhall’s No. 1 stated goal was to go through spring ball and make it out the other side with the roster largely intact. Removing the spring game from the public eye and limiting the information that came out of Utah State maybe wasn’t ideal, but if it prevented a mass exodus out of Logan (due to tampering of other programs) so be it.
After all, a year ago in his return to coaching Division I college football, Mendenhall experienced what can happen in the spring in the era of the NCAA transfer portal and unregulated NIL. He lost 17 scholarship players from New Mexico during the spring transfer portal window in 2024. By the time fall camp rolled around nearly a quarter of his roster hadn’t gone through a training camp or organized workout with him at the helm.
It wasn’t difficult to glean that Mendenhall wasn’t enthused about the prospect of going through that again.
“I think the worst part of college football’s current structure is the spring window,” Mendenhall told KSL Sports’ Scott Garrard earlier this week. “It really does not give a chance for stability in any way, shape or form, for roster management.
“And there’s clearly a better way that provides access for players to move where they would like to in the appropriate time and then programs to have enough consistency.”
The decision to close things off wasn’t an easy one. Especially given the need to generate excitement (and monetary contributions) for the program.
“I never imagined that I would make that decision (put a wall up around the program) or would need to make that decision,” Mendenhall said. “But I’m the steward over this program and the resources that we have and the primary resource that I care about most is our players.
“I wrestled even further with (allowing access) to esteemed alumni that wanted to come back, or people who are contributing to our collective that have given so much,” he continued. “I managed that the best I could in terms of who, if any, gets access. How come? How trustworthy (are they)? Will that information spread?
“All it takes is a single comment from someone to a friend, ‘You gotta see so and so at Utah State.’ It doesn’t take any more than that. I would have never imagined that that would be the case, but yet that’s the case.”
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Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall during spring practice in Logan. | Utah State Athletics
As of April 30, a week and a half removed from the conclusion of spring camp, it appears, though, that Mendenhall’s latest approach to the spring worked. The Aggies have had a few players enter the transfer portal and leave this spring, but overwhelmingly the roster that Mendenhall constructed in his first go-around in Logan is intact.
On that basis alone, spring football could — probably should — be considered a resounding success for Utah State.
“Of our current team and players that we felt were vital to retain, we did really, really well,” Mendenhall said. “And so the relationships are taking hold, the vision is being believed in, the camaraderie and the unity started. And really, players that were existing here weren’t going anywhere, ones that have been with us from the winter and through the spring.”
What about beyond retaining players though? Yes, first and foremost Utah State needed to keep talent in Logan — too much had left USU during transfer portal windows the last couple of seasons — but Mendenhall is also trying to establish what he wants his program to look like. Trying to build a culture, habits and expectations for what Utah State football will be in its newest edition. And expectations are high for the Mendenhall era, given his track record as a DI head coach.
On that front, Mendenhall was also largely pleased, noting that the culture he wants to establish at Utah State is well on its way to taking root.
“Lots of really positive things (this spring),” Mendenhall told KSL Sports’ Garrard. “Really, there’s a sequence and a rhythm and a cadence to taking over and launching a program. To me, the culture is always first. So the effort component, certainly the physicality ... the camaraderie, the keyboard, the unselfishness. So the entire primary focus on the launch was getting the culture right.”
He added: “I think culture is becoming very strong.”
When it comes to understanding his roster and the install of new schemes, Mendenhall was fairly pleased too.
“I think we have a really clear idea of where our talent currently is and where our strengths might lie in,” he said. “Then we got a really nice head start in terms of the schematic part.”
Utah State also escaped the spring without many serious injuries.
“I would say overall, spring was a success,” Mendenhall said. “And very few injuries, which is always something that’s concerning, especially when you’re trying to install the physicality component.”
Utah State football under Mendenhall is still something of an unknown. That was the plan and it was well executed.
There is reason for optimism, though, based on player retention (transfers in and out are almost all made public). And Mendenhall hopes that come the fall he’ll be able to open up his program in a meaningful way, just in time to get supporters excited before the opener at home against UTEP on Aug. 30.
“My hope is to make up for some of that (lack of access/information) in the fall, where usually it was just the opposite,” he said. “Fall (camp) was kind of the lockdown season (in the past) and now I intend to flip the script to some extent. I don’t really know what that can look like yet ... hopefully we can make up with some access.”
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Utah State players take a knee to listen to USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall during spring football practice at Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah. | Utah State Athletics
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